How a PRM Platform Can Help Streamline Communication and Collaboration

No matter what industry you’re in, chances are you rely on indirect sales channels and partner programs in order to rapidly scale revenue. Although managing these partners and programs was once an expensive, time-consuming headache, partner relationship management (PRM) solutions are paving the way for easy management and scaling growth at the pace you need.

What Is PRM?

Just a few years ago, Gartner predicted that 20 percent of B2Bs would be focused on commercially available PRM software by 2018. As an end-to-end strategy for managing relationships between vendors and indirect sales channel partners, PRM is crucial because it changes partners from contacts on a spreadsheet to extensions of your organization.

PRM platforms use various tools and strategies to organize partner programs and nurture those partners—which ultimately enables them to sell more eagerly and effectively. The best PRM solutions offer a robust environment for everything from channel partner onboarding and training to lead management and co-marketing opportunities.

Benefits of a PRM Platform

Chief among the major benefits of implementing a PRM platform is the ability to streamline communication and collaboration. Partner relationship management allows organizations to remain efficient and organized—especially during periods of growth. Some of the other major benefits of a PRM solution include:

Empowering the Channel

One of the primary features of a PRM platform is that it’s built to empower channel partners. This means self-guided onboarding and training modules, which not only save time and labor, but also give channel partners the ability to provide feedback about their experiences so you can deliver better onboarding and training in the future. With Allbound’s PRM platform, you can provide your channel partners with training courses and certificate programs—and even gamify these activities to incentivize your partners. With the right training and incentives in place, you can get to market faster and your channel partners will be better enabled to sell.

Registering and Tracking Leads

Some partners don’t take the time to register leads, and if they do, it might be in a spreadsheet. Then, the channel team has to track down partners to manage deals or catch up with qualified leads. As a company scales, this kind of process becomes unmanageable and detrimental. A PRM platform allows you to clean up the pipeline and boost the strength and efficiency of channel sales.

With Allbound’s PRM solution, you not only gain a 360-degree view of partner sales and customer performance, but you also can streamline lead nurturing, reduce spending, and make it more likely for partners to engage with your team at every step of the sales process.

Managing Valuable Assets

A PRM platform allows vendors to easily respond to partner requests for collateral, and it makes it easier for channel partners to find the right assets at the right time. Information is power, and efficient asset distribution and organization will empower your channel partners to deliver the right materials or promotions to the right recipients at the right time.

Between sales content for pitches and marketing content for social media distribution, Allbound lets you deliver meaningful, relevant content in a more streamlined, natural way. Allbound also offers in-channel and in-app messaging and collaboration for content sharing.

Providing Productivity Tools

One of the most powerful benefits of a PRM platform is that it allows you to deliver new product information and introductions to the partner team in real time, creating efficient and effective processes for sales. Additionally, a PRM system delivers powerful sales productivity tools that allow you to educate and motivate your partners while also measuring their performance through a robust array of metrics.

Delivering a 5-Star Experience

Your channel partners wantto be deeply committed to selling your product or service. After all, your success is their success. Having a powerful PRM platform that treats them like an extended part of the company will help drive your channel partners to eagerly and confidently sell. If you support their efforts, they’ll deliver.

Partners can and should be able to share their insights, feedback, and experiences in a real-time, self-service environment so that you can easily assess strengths, weaknesses, and how to better serve your channel partners and improve your sales team.

The Power of a PRM Platform

With robust PRM software, you can empower your channel partners with valuable collateral to boost their sales efforts, a powerful experience that proves they’re a valued part of your extended team, and a way to engage and communicate easily and quickly—and all of this works in harmony so your company can stay organized while scaling operations and revenue. No matter how big or small your partner program, set your partners up for success with the right PRM solution.

Now that you know how a PRM platform can help streamline communication and collaboration for your channel partners, download The 2018 PRM Guide to learn more about how the right PRM solution can change your channel sales game.